Birthday Fun!

What a wonderful weekend birthday celebration we had! :)

Harrison partook in his first memorable parade and I think he really hated it.  I mean despised it.  ESPECIALLY the fire trucks.  Those were just terrible. :)

Oh and the candy....at first, he didn't quite understand the candy aspect of the parade, but he quickly caught on and would rush to get candy thrown onto the ground.  Luckily, I don't think he realized he could eat most of it, so it was just the thrill of the chase that entertained him. 

And what birthday is complete without a cake?? Never mind that we picked it up about 2 hours prior to the candles being lit...We'll get on the party train soon enough.  For now, we will enjoy that we can keep it as low key as possible!

The family that dresses together, stays together!!!

I spy a fire truck puzzle!!

And now a message from Hazel: 

Help me! This large baby is in my face all day long! He slobbers more than I do!!!

And then there is this!!! I don't take selfies, Dad!!!! SOS!!! SAVE ME!!!!!

Dear Harrison

Dear Harrison, our spunky, LOUD, smart little two year old boy,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

This morning you woke us up (surprise of most surprises. not.) at 5:30 ready for your big day.  We had talked the night before that we would give you as many dried strawberries as you wanted this morning. It's your new favorite food, word, reason to throw tantrums.... Speaking of words, you learn new ones daily! This morning when you were holding Hazel, I told you "Look how happy she is!!" and you repeated "Happy" like it ain't no thang.  

We both brought you to school this morning and you carried in those mini-cupcake like it was your job.  Your friends (who were able) told you Happy Birthday and you gave this shy, adorable little face, like you were ALL ready for the attention, but then, wait! not too much!

You've started to say "Hi, Mommy" when you see me first thing in the morning or after school.  You give eskimo kisses and super hugs and kisses when we get owies. 

You are so strong willed at times...remember those strawberries you ask for all.the.time?? Denial of said strawberries have resulted in many a dirty look or scream at your parents....all for a strawberry or two...Outside is another favorite that you say 30 thousand times a night, even after we've already been outside! 

Now on to songs...Baa Baa Sheep should definitely win a Grammy this year in your book.  Possibly along with Wheels on the Bus...too close to call, at times.  We read a 100 words/picture book EVERY NIGHT before bed and you point out so much of it, little smarty pants! There is one book that has a knight in it and you always point and say "Daddy." Awww... you also point at the big gorilla and say the same thing, so I'm not 100% how you determine these associations, but actually now that I think about it, you are spot on. ;)

You also sometimes try to trick us and point to the dog when we say "Where's the banana?" and think it's HILARIOUS! You try to hold back your laughter and about .2 seconds later, bust up in giggles.

Most recently, we are so impressed at how you love your sister and how gentle you are with her. You've even tried tickling her chunky cheeks! You wake her up every morning (sorry Hazel), and climb up on the bed to get right at her level and just look into her face.  She eventually smiles... :)

We love you SO MUCH and hope you had the best day today! We can't wait to bring you home and celebrate tonight with pizza, carrot cake, and a super surprise toy we think you will love!  You bring us so many smiles every day and we know the next year ahead of his will be just as amazing and full of adventure. 

xo

Quarter of a Year Celebration!

This post is solely dedicated to our little bucket of sunshine, Miss Hazel.  Happy 3 Months (tomorrow)!!!

"Who me???"

Yes, this little girl is quite the lady.  She's rolling (with only a tiny little push from big brother, but a very enthusiastic applaud from him afterwards) from tummy to back, smiling, grabbing for toys and her toes....really doing some fun stuff.

Hazel has been to daycare a few days so far and will start full time next week.  As much as I love snuggling with her all day (and she LOVES it too, which makes for kind of unproductive days....), I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of things at work.  We love our daycare and they love Hazel, so it's a win/win.  Plus being close enough to check in throughout the day is a plus!

Hazel still has dark blue/gray eyes and they may stay that way! She's got some gorgeous eye lashes and a cute button nose.  Her toes come from the Hill side of the family, long and very handy for pinching her brother in the future, I'm sure!

This little chunky monkey is also about 14 lbs, which on the larger end for a 3 month old.  She is just such a long baby!

And if you think every picture she takes is blog worth with a smile or perfect contemplative look....you are mistaken....

There was this...

Sorry future Hazel, I couldn't help but post the "Flying Nun" picture... :) 

We are have so much fun watching this little princess grow and become an adorable baby! Harrison absolutely adores her and there is no shortage of kisses going on in the Hill household.  

xo

Summer Days

Forward to the following post....This was written in chunks here and there, so if it doesn't quite flow as well as it should, that's why....

Ok, let's be honest here.....Hazel is nearly two three months and I have posted ONCE since her birth, so this is really a two month recap... I hope you are comfortable because I'll be spewing stories for a while today to catch up. :) Lovely visual, right??

Well, our little sweet bundle of smiles is almost two months old and she is beyond everything we could have imagined.  I know it may not always (probably never again) be this calm with two kids, so excuse me while I brag a little bit...

Hazel is getting some really great naps in, which is SOO great during the day.  I actually feel BETTER than when I was pregnant! I'm able to get stuff done around the house and she only wakes up once a night to eat, so I'm actually sleeping better too! No more 3-4 potty breaks during the night for this girl, thank goodness!

Out for our morning walk! Hazel usually passes out about 3 minutes in and I'm stuck carrying an extra 14 lbs up a hill :)

Harrison still (thankfully) thinks his little sister is really great! In fact, he thinks she is so great, he wants to be around her all.the.time....which for the most part is really sweet to watch, but he's still a little rough in the kiss department.  And he better keep his distance at times because this morning she farted in his face...what a
lady!! :)

UPDATE: So I wrote the first part of this post before life got REALLY crazy....

As many of you are aware, there are some aspects to our house that aren't quite...normal...  The owners before us were a bit odd, they were doomsday preparers and I don't think owned a measuring tape or level when they built it.  Anyways, most of the smaller issues worked themselves out...we removed the gallons of water from the crawlspace, Adam has replaced seafoam green carpet, painted pink walls, etc.  But there was one lingering monster.  Tucked away in a small room was our air conditioning.  A 20 year old geothermal unit (which turns out is super rare...like 1/2 of a percent of people actually own one of these) that had begun to give us problems, but we knew we'd have to end up replacing it sometime in the future...well that time came Monday afternoon (now three Mondays ago) in the form of a flooded basement.

I was upstairs minding my own business when I heard the unit start up, but something was amiss.  It sounded louder than usual and almost like.......hmm...yes, water....So I muted Shark Week to be sure, and headed downstairs to find water gushing out from that little scary room out into our main basement.  What's a girl to do?!?! I was finally able to turn off the pipe that blew within a few minutes, but the damage had been done.  About 75% of our basement had standing water. NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

So since then, we've been dealing with insurance, contractors, AC companies, etc. We've been without AC for about a week (although a portable unit has been cooling down bedrooms in the meantime), and the coolest part of our home is inhabitable.  This week has just been chaotic, but it will be worth it in a few weeks to have our basement remodeled (albeit a few years before we planned to).

Mid-demo phase...fans drying out walls and cabinets, stuff EVERYWHERE!

Now, back to the scheduled blog post!

Harrison has been making leaps and bounds in many areas and to see his personality shine through is so much fun.  He is learning so many new words that it sometimes catches us by surprise! "Alligator" is a favorite and recommendations on alligator shirts would be very helpful as he only has two (I know, basically child abuse to not have an alligator shirt for every single day of the week).  He still loves playing outside, but now rides his bike, RUNS EVERYWHERE, and splashes in the pool with bubbles.  He keeps us on our toes!

Hazel starts her first day at daycare tomorrow, the same one that Harrison goes to. She'll be going once a week for a few months, then go to full time.  Adam made sure she already had her name on a cubby this morning...they can't wait for a new addition to the infant room. :) Adam has also been making sure to give the infant room teachers hugs when he drops off Harrison...they love it (duh), but there isn't anything wrong with making sure you are in the good graces of the care takers, right? I let Adam do the butter-ing up as the last time I saw the infant teacher, she called me Brenda....

And now for the pictures so I can publish this bad boy and finally be caught up on blogging? maybe?

Chowing down on a zucchini....Harrison (thank goodness!) is not afraid to try new foods! Now, whether or not he actually eats them and doesn't spit them out...totally different story...

These guys...cuddling up to watch a storm pass through.  

Hazel is working on her baby rolls.  Ohhh baby rolls, such a great thing :)

Halloween may come a little early this year. 

Ready for football season!

Closest we have currently to a family picture, but one to come, keep your eyes out!

Fall, we are ready for you!!!!!

Welcome Baby Hazel!

I'd like everyone to give a nice warm welcome to the newest member of our little family....Miss Hazel McKinley!  Born June 10, 2014.

Hazel's story starts out like any other new baby story...Mom thinks, "Hmm I may be pregnant," takes a test and leaves the room, Dad peeks on test and sees IMMEDIATELY positive and then tries to act surprised when Mom comes back to check... you know how the story goes, right?  Heard it a thousand times....

Obviously this little lady wanted to make it known she was on her way from the get go.  I luckily didn't have any nausea...quite the opposite actually.  I gained a *few* more pounds this time around and eventually Adam and I weighed the same amount, which was a really positive boost to my self esteem at a time when my maternity shirts barely covered my belly and I was rotating the same 2 pants and skirt over and over. ;) But in all seriousness, this pregnancy was definitely a little tougher on me than Harrison, but nothing I could really complain about too much.

Harrison loved to point at my belly and say "baby," but I don't think he actually quite understood the meaning behind it, especially since he did the same thing to Adam. :)

Weeks passed and we were very impatiently waiting little girl's arrival.  Would she be 2.5 weeks early like Harrison?  Would I have to (gasp!) stay pregnant a full 40 weeks?  I got used to the well meaning comments from parents at school and co-workers, "Wow, when is that baby coming?" Yeah...I was huge.

At 39 weeks, I awoke to what I thought was my water breaking in the same fashion as Harrison's, no gush (sorry any men who are reading this...you may just want to skip the next few paragraphs....), but just a trickle.  I looked at Adam who looked back at me...could this be it??

So I went to work (as one does when one thinks their water is breaking) and hoped the janitor wouldn't have a mess to clean up in a few hours.  Once I was able to call the doctor's office, they directed me to the hospital since they were too busy to squeeze me in.  Also during this time, I received a call from Harrison's daycare casually calling to inform me that Harrison had already bitten two friends and it was only 9 AM! Great, this is JUST what we need....three bites and he had to come home for the day.  Luckily, he was able to control himself till about 4 PM.

Harrison helping me bounce the baby out on the exercise ball before we left for the hospital.

Off to the hospital I waddled only for them to tell me, "nope, your water didn't break, but you are having contractions and you're at about a 2, so go home and we'll see ya later, alligator!"  So, I went home and patiently waited for Adam to get off work and bring me a Washington Burrito.  We called his parents to watch Harrison and my Mom to come be my labor coach in case this really was the real deal.

Adam, Gracie, and Buddy helping me to walk the baby out... :) 

The afternoon and evening was fairly uneventful and calm.  We ate dinner, walked around the neighborhood (turns out our dogs have gotten fairly lazy lately...) and waited to see what would happen.  Contractions were getting closer and closer together, but were definitely mild, thank goodness.  I was able to fall asleep only for a few hours before contractions woke me up and we knew it was go time.

We (me, Adam, Mom) arrived at the hospital around 3:00 AM (after taking the most ridiculous detours ever!).  Luckily THIS car ride to the hospital was much more relaxing than the 40 minute ride when Harrison was born (picture Adam driving on the freeway, Mom and Taylor scrunched in the back seat with a car seat and me up front with HEAVY contractions opening and closing the sun roof every 3 minutes).

At this point, they luckily agreed, "Yep, you are in labor," so we went back to settle into our room.  I wanted to check out the Jacuzzi tub (unfortunately Adam couldn't join me this time...).  The Jacuzzi room was basically in another wing of the hospital, which made walking back from it with contractions really enjoyable, and the room only had two levels of lighting, 100% full on flood lights or pitch black.  So we went with the pitch black and used my ipod for mood lighting.

After the tub, back in the room, I was only at about a 4, which after a few hours of less than enjoyable contractions and after Harrison's speedy entrance, hearing I still had over half way to go was kinda deflating.  Neither of us had really slept that night and that was starting to catch up to us, but we had no where to go but onward...By about 8:30 AM, I was spent! I had read about women falling asleep in between contractions after long labors because it just is so exhausting, but I could never have pictured that...and yet, here I was dozing off for a minute here or there.  At this point, I was only at a 5 (also, pain meds were definitely on my mind, however, the thought of sitting still for any amount of time or having to wait for an anesthesiologist to arrive seemed out of the question).  The doctor on call that morning gave me the option of popping the water bag to speed things up or just continuing on.  I was having trouble making a decision, do they pop it and it gets worse, God forbid, or do I just keep pressing on and be in labor for days maybe weeks (or so it felt)??  Luckily, Adam talked some sense into me and they popped the water and said we should expect to have a baby in about an hour and a half or so....which still seemed like an ETERNITY to me!  The doctor planned to go back to the offices across the street and told us to give her a holler if I felt any need to push....

Fast forward 12 MINUTES and the nurses were a frenzy.  This kid was ready to come out and they decided "hmm, we should have the doctor come in and check things out before she walks across the street." Good thinking because she had just gotten her gloves on when Hazel decided to make her entrance.  Two pushes and whammy, there she was! Good thing too, because I was exhausted! She immediately started crying, Adam cut the cord and all was well. :) It was intense!

Welcome Baby Hazel!

She was able to nurse for an hour or so while we tried to comprehend how fast everything had just happened and celebrate this feisty little girl. When the time came for the big weigh in, you could say we were a bit shocked to read 9 lbs 12.9 oz on the scale.  This was no little girl, this was one big girl and where she was hiding those pounds, I'll never know because she just looked so dainty!  She measured 21 inches long.  Harrison better watch his back, she'll be up to his size in no time!

Phew, Hazel's birth was quite a ride, but we wouldn't have it any other way (well, maybe painless from my point of view...).  We are so glad she's finally here!  Harrison loves his baby sister and even gives her kisses, as well as enthusiastic pets on her head, which we are still working on.  He bring her pacifier and blanket to her, shhhhhh's her when she's crying, points and says "baby," and smiles the biggest smile when he sees her for the first time in the morning or after daycare. It really is the sweetest thing to see.

She is a wonderful sleeper, just like her mama!

Thank you everyone who congratulated us on her arrival and to Adam's parents who entertained Harrison for a few days, and my Mom for being an excellent labor coach.  We are feeling just beyond blessed with our little clan. :)

Ok, now that your eyes are probably crossed from reading so much, more pictures to come this summer of our family settling in with the new addition.  We are looking forward to a relaxed summer with lots of walks, maybe some swimming, and plenty of adventuring.

Already enjoying the sibling bond, right Harrison?

Love, Brittney, Adam, Harrison & Hazel

Nesting and everything else!

Ok everyone, settle in for a much overdue post about pretty much everything!

1. We are in FULL nesting mode. And by that, I don't mean a little light dusting and vacuuming....I mean Adam basically has a second job in the evenings as Mr. Fix-it.  We painted the laundry room (I admit, the very bold Robin's Egg Blue was a little tough on the eyes), painted the kitchen, painted the deck (still a work in progress), I made a quilt (I know...random), and have been organizing, purging, and just preparing for baby!  Here are some updates to the house!  Not all of this has been done in the last few weeks, but all within the last year...

Here is the before of our dining room.  This was probably one of our very first "almost" complete rooms in the house (because no room ever REALLY feels complete, right??).

And here is the AFTER!

Obviously the biggest change in this room was the striped accent wall.  Adam did an awesome job with this (I'm more of an "ideas" girl) and we LOVE how it's turned out.  

Next up, guest/Harrison bathroom!!  This is the before.  Very dark paint, light cabinets...

Hi baby Harrison!!! :)

And AFTER!!!

Biggest change here, besides the paint, was the mirror.  We took out the big flat mirror and hung two separate framed mirrors instead.  Easy Peasy!!!

And now for a fun one! The nursery reveal! I didn't have before pictures for this room, but just visualize purple-y/beige walls and nothing else....

That's about all of our room reveals at this point.  Our kitchen is in mid-renovation, so those pictures will be coming along soon!

2. Whew, finally to number two, which ties in nicely with the nursery....We are basically down to counting the days before our little girl arrives.  She could be here in a week to three weeks (thus the mad rush to get things done around the house). I'm absolutely ready to pop and am looking forward to meeting her! Hospital bag is all packed, carseat is waiting to be installed, double stroller set up and test run passed inspected....we are READY!! (in like 2 weeks...) :) 

3.  Life hasn't been all work lately....we've had some great times playing too!!!  We've taken Harrison down to the Arboretum a few times because there is so much space for him to explore and run off some of that toddler energy.  He loooooooves it :)  And we love that we don't have to worry about him walking off a cliff at every turn...

Those geese obviously need to be taught a lesson. 

Having fun playing hide and seek!

This kiddo! 

We also traveled down to Kahlotus last weekend and Harrison got the chance to run around and get dirty! What fun!!!!  We missed the birth of a baby girl horse by just a few days, though....bummer!

Is there a reason this thing isn't on???

Ok, that's about all from the Hills for this week.  I'm sure as we get closer and closer to due date, we'll have more to report on!